Chapter 2
Weirdo

The mission at the school was not one of those kind where you were expected to show up once and then it was all done; the contract included week and a half of visiting the school and spending a considerate amount of time inside, spend preferably on teaching kids. Pulling out a show instead was also acceptable, because it was making kids excited about learning. Oddly enough, the Iron Dragon Slayer wasn't too fond of making a spectacle out of his visits, like showing off was beyond him.

Lucy climbed up her tree every single day out of pure curiosity. Gajeel still had no chance of sniffing her out, since Elfman was still going at it with his perfumes - the guy actually got banned from few places in the city already - so both Redfox and Lucy smelled like that blasted thing.

Lucy herself decided to swallow her pride and took a job at the restaurant that filled her afternoons and evenings and helped at the Guild with early morning cleaning. Her finances were poor, but she could scrap enough to pay that blasted rent. And still had enough time to stalk Gajeel during schooltime.

After the first shock which followed heating her soup - seriously, what kind of life you needed to lead to pick up that skill? - Lucy decided it would be worth it to observe what else Redfox decided to show the kids.

It was all pretty easy, useful stuff.

Charming a pine needle - or any leaf, the kids decided to test all they could put their hands on - to point north while in a puddle of water or in a bowl.

Repairing a broken shoelace by charming the torn parts back together - which gave him an excuse to show the kids how to make a funny looking knots and how to make and use a firing bow.

Then there were small illusion tricks to hide - seriously? - pimples which made the four girls that attended the class squeal with delight. and then follow Gajeel like a bunch of puppies and demand tips on hair or asking him about piercing and how much it hurt. His confusion was sort of adorable.

Lucy doubted that he cared about how his skin looked like, but a small illusions like that could hide a lot of other things. She didn't want to think what reason he needed that skill for, but tried to repeat it at home anyway. It would be neat, to always look good on a mission, even if she felt like a crap.

It took Lucy much more time than the hobo-ramen trick and she still wasn't too sure about the effects. Apparently whatever it was about charming how one looked like, that branch of magic really didn't agree with Lucy's skills. Quite a shame, because magicking yourself a make-up in a matter of second would be the best thing in the world.

Besides developing a habit of sitting on the trees – and getting bolder and bolder with that, since Lucy started bringing her lunch up there, to have something to munch on during the daily stalking session, not much have changed.

Her hopes that after almost two weeks Natsu would finally be back in form, didn't resulted in anything but disappointment. The Fire Dragon Slayer was still mostly out of it. To the point that Happy was now dealing with their finances. It resulted in them pretty much eating only fish - and sometimes something else, if Mira managed to snatch Natsu at the guild hall. Because of all these fishes, the two of them started reeks like they crawled out of a fishing boat themselves. Seeing that - or rather smelling it - Erza quickly grabbed Gray and ran out of the Guildhall, stopping only to pick up the nearest mission request. Juvia, naturally, cheerfully followed them, murmuring her usual nonsense about love rivals. Lucy couldn't join that merry group on their rather random adventure, since she still had two days of her current job to finish, so all what was left for her was to stay put where she was.

Two days later, the school mission was back on the board - same as the helping at the restaurant, it was a regular one. Apparently having a mage from a popular guild showing up once in awhile added to their prestige, so hiring someone who called for ridiculously high amount of money compared to a mundane man was more than worth it.

Lucy still wanted that job. While she was sure that she couldn't be possibly as interesting as Gajeel was - she wasn't cursing a lot, so she had none of his charm - she still could teach them a bit about stars. Those could help find your way home just as well as a pine needle in a puddle, but didn't require anything but night. Besides, celestial magic was so rare! And silver spirits could make amazing friends for children, slowly but surely helping them better control their magic and grow their reserves.

Gajeel once again snatched exactly that job right at the moment when she was about to pick the poster up.

"Hey!" Lucy protested. "I wanted that job!"

"Tough luck!" Redfox smirked nastily and turned on his heel, walking away.

"Bastard!" Lucy grunted. Was he waiting for her, or something? Was he finding making her angry funny? Because him showing up just in that exact moment when Lucy was about to raise her hand was more than just a bit suspicious.

Not that Lucy could do anything about that. Challenging someone like Gajeel over a job would be just a silly thing to do. She also highly doubted that asking him to give it back would lead to anything at all. He seemed to enjoy teaching and the kids definitely had fun when he was around. She wasn't going to rob them of that.

It seemed that the restaurant it was all for Lucy, once again. A steady source of outcome, but it wasn't what she was writing herself for when she decided to study magic. With a sigh, she reached out and picked her request. Then, after turning away from the board, she noticed something.

Lucy wasn't the only one giving Redfox a sour eye, which wasn't making sense. People were poking fun at each other at all time when it came to picking requests from the board. They sometimes even fought over it. Well, they were still pissed off at him, that she could understood, but singling anyone out like that wouldn't lead to anything good.

With a frown, Lucy observed Jet and Droy who stood up and quietly walked out of the building, with Levy following them with an odd expression on her face.

They weren't planning to do anything stupid, right? Like challenging the Dragon Slayer to a fight, or something like that.

Lucy decided to follow them. In the worst case scenario she would call Virgo and snatch someone - she wasn't sure who - underground and then talk people out of being dumb. Because seriously, they belonged to the same Guild now. Even if they didn't like each other, they should at least try to not get all stabby and nasty to each other.

Following Gajeel was a bit more difficult this time, since Elfman was finally done with the product-placement - and Mira banned him from taking any mission like that ever again - so Lucy wasn't smelling like some random dude anymore.

On the other hand, he seemed to pick the same path she did when she was walking from the Guild to the restaurant, so her smell was probably lingering somewhere around the place anyway. So it wasn't that strange that she was walking this way today, right?

She found the group when they were already at it, so Lucy hid behind the corner, biting her lip. This was already ugly and was probably going to turn uglier and now she had to decide what to do. Rescue the two idiots with the help of Virgo? Ask Aquarius to drown them all a bit, to make the whole group cool down?

The more Lucy observed the situation while trying to make her mind the more, it looked more like Jet and Droy were at it, while Gajeel was letting them do whatever. The Dragon Slayer forced his muscles to relax and whatever punches the two guys decided to throw at him seemed to be more slipping past him that actually hit and doing damage.

Still, he was just letting them...

"Idiots, all of them," Lucy muttered under his nose.

Punching people was not going to solve anything in this situation. And letting people punch you was not a good call either. Sooner than later both Jet and Droy were going to understood that Gajeel was going easy on them and that was going only to either piss them some more. Or it will make them feel like a crap. Both would cause the fragile relationship between the Dragon Slayer and the rest of the guild to take turn to worse.

Lucy was about to get out of her hidey-hole and order them to stop this madness when Laxus showed up and all went to hell. Thunder roared, lightning crashed through the air and the whole group almost got toasted.

Lucy couldn't hear what they were saying, but the way they moved was enough to guess what was going on. The lightning mage was openly offensive – definitely looking for a fight – while Gajeel tensed noticeably, fully expecting the fight.

At least that made Jet to finally open his eyes. He tried to defend Gajeel from the suddenly crazy guild mate. He was speaking quickly and waving his hands and actually trying to get in between Laxus and other people.

Lexus didn't took that well, like something just snapped inside him. Another lightning charge filled the air, heading right where Levy was hiding. the bastard knew where she was and didn't even seem to care!
Lucy gasped and reached for her keys, painfully aware that whatever she was going to do, it was already too late. Summoning a spirit took only a little time, but compared to the speed of vicious chain of light cracking menacingly with electricity, it was forever.

Whatever and however Redfox managed to pull that one off, he was right in front of Levy before the hit connected with her and turned his forearm into a shield of sorts.

Lucy shuddered, almost dropping her keychain. It was a lightning, so ow. And Gajeel was made of metal so, uh, double ow!

After that Laxus finally decided that he was done and walked away.

Redfox for some crazy reason decided that heading towards the school was as good idea as ever and he proceed to do so, even if he clearly felt the results of Laxus' attack, leaving a shell-shocked team Shadow Gear behind as if he hadn't even noticed them in the first place.

"What's up with guys and acting all cool?" Lucy hissed. Gajeel definitely didn't look like anything you should let anywhere near school. Or any place else, excluding maybe a hospital. Walking, he managed to pull, but it looked like each step was an act of pure strength of will than anything else.

Lucy followed, mentally ready to pick the guy up and wrestle him someplace safe and more private than the middle of the street he was walking on. Fairy Tail was supposed to be all cool. Lying on the street all beaten up was not cool at all.

"Why the fuck you're following me?" Gajeel suddenly stopped dead and barked.

" I'm waiting for you to drop face-first on the ground. Then I'm going to rob you, duh." Lucy rolled her eyes. "Paranoid much?"

"You fairies are a bunch of madmen," he shot back immediately.

At least now Lucy knew that the lightning hasn't fried his brain. Which was good. Probably. What looked like a good idea a minute ago, now… wasn't. The Iron Dragon Slayer was huge, strong and currently pissed off.

"You fit in rather well," Lucy said. "Though really, the hell was that?"

"What?"

"The stuff with Jet and Droy."

"Not your business," he shrugged.

...how exactly Juvia decided that this guy was her friend? A few minutes in a conversation that was not involving knives and Lucy wasn't sure if she wanted tear out his hair or her own.

"It's mine now," she said with a shrug. "You looks like hell. No way they are letting you into that school."

He furrowed his brow.

"The hell you're talking about?"

"You snatched that request right when I was about to pick it up. Twice," Lucy rolled her eyes. "So stop being so goddamn suspicious already, it's not like I'm going to drag you into some dark corner and have my way with you."

His eyes widened comically.

Innuendo, always on her side. Seemed to work just fine on oh so very scary Iron Dragon Slayer.

"There's at least another half an hour before you have to be in that school," Lucy sighed. "So come with me, well going to make you somewhat presentable again."

"...and why do you know when I'm starting my job?"

"Because I wanted it?" Lucy rolled her eyes. "Seriously, I read that request at least twice and my memory is not that bad."

She wasn't lying. Since Natsu pulled on her that one request with the book and that nasty pervert, Lucy developed a habit of reading everything there was to read on the poster. And she had to know when to show at the school in the first place.

"Whatever," Gajeel said.

So, he actually agreed and accepted her help. What a surprise. Naturally, he knew pretty well where she was living - it would be a surprise if he didn't. After all, it was the guy who managed to find her with ease, following her through the entire city like it was nothing.

Gajeel definitely looked odd nested on her fluffy, bright sofa, among the delicate window curtains, cute knick-knacks and pink pillows. He was just so dark and gloomy it was plain hilarious. Lucy decided she needed some sort of a prize for not laughing her butt of the first moment she looked at him and then tossed the man her hairbrush.

"You want hair conditioner too?" she shouted from the bathroom, to hunt down her first aid kit.

"No way in hell!" he immediately answered. "The stench is going to stick forever! I'm done with that shit!"

"Rriight," Lucy muttered. If she barely could stand these crappy perfume, she had no idea how someone with a sense of smell as strong as Gajeel seemed to have managed to survive.

Lucy honestly tried to help with cleaning up the scratches and small burns, but he just took everything out of her hands and dealt with it on his own.

That was some impressive shit to behold, he never once missed and had no way of seeing what he was doing while he was taking care of his face.

"Why did you pick that request anyway?" Lucy mused, observing him. She barely could tell that a few moments ago he was in that fight. Fight-like thing. Whatever it was.

"Why not?"

"You don't strike me as a guy who like to deal with little kids," she said with a small shrug. She knew for the fact that he was awesome with brats as long as you didn't mind them picking up a bunch of interesting words.

Instead of answering her, Gajeel just shrugged.

"I'm going now," he said.

Lucy raised an eyebrow, but decided to not point out that she deserved some sort of a thank you for helping him out. She would pry something out of him later.

A/N: Oh, look, they talked to each other!
And even managed to communicate with each other (somewhat), though Lucy is not doing too well when it comes to translating Gajeel into human speech. Meanwhile Gajeel is just weirded out by the situation. And he apparently hates hair-care products.
(I was like, supposed to sit on this chapter for awhile, but now I'm just what the hell, gonna publish it at some point, why not now?)